I am looking at the Hummingbird 525 fish finder for use mounted in my kayak.  Cabela's has it for $129.  The product description looks like it should be a nice unit for what kinds of places I like to fish.  The 1600 watts may even be a little overkill.  I know it is not a portable unit but the advertised quick disconnect feature should make it easy for me to remove it when not in use.

Anyone have any experience with this unit?  Alternative recommendations?

DWS

Hey DWS , Bottom line sold out to Hummingbird and we bought a Bottom Line Fisng buddy 2002 , for 80 bucks!!!!!!!! Cabelas has them on slae in a big bin at The Hamburg PA, store, they used to be 170 bucks

It is all contained in one piece the transucer right to the screen, it clamps on to the side, They are not the worlds best , but good enough for structure and Temp etc.. They run on 6 aa batteries and that cuts about 50 lbs of wieght. They would not be good on a motor boat but for our small row boat with a Trolling motoer it is the way to go. Check em out Here is Tackle Tour review of the cheaper model the 1200 Cabelas has the new Hummingbirds on thier site

http://www.tackletour.com/reviewbottomline1200.html

I've thought about putting one in my kayak but haven't even begun to research a unit or how to mount it. KFS is a great resource for DIY mods to yaks and is where I'm going to spend some time reading up on it when I'm ready.

http://kayakfishingstuff.com/'>

http://kayakfishingstuff.com/

I have a little one man boat called a creekboat,i bought a cuda242 which has a swivel mount that i installed in front of me and bought the suction cup transducer that sticks to the outside of the boat and is powered by a small 12v 7amp battery,works great!

This is how i did mine, it works slick. No worries of losing a transducer to the rocks. I have a 585C on mine. Which is really overboard for a yak, but it was a left over I had when I upgraded to the SI.

http://www.fishingminnesota.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Number/831312

Muddy,

I looked at the fish finders that clamp on the side and I don't really have a good place to clamp on on my yak.  I'd have to rig up some kind of mount that sticks out over the side.  If I'm going to rig up a mount I'd just as soon center the unit in my cockpit.

I've visited the Kayak Fishing Stuff site.  Lots of good info over there with some ideas for mounting and rigging.  I was just wondering if the Hummingbird units have a decent reputation these days, particularly that 525 model.

DWS